Terrain work in progress: Palm trees for 28mm and 15mm - Updated 29.5.2025

As I want to depict an oasis cultivation and need more palm trees in general and need more palm trees in general, it was time to paint the ones I had ordered from China some time ago.

However, of course I don't want to use them as they were delivered - apart from the unnatural plastic shine, the colours are also anything but true to the original.

Accordingly, all of them will be completely repainted using an airbrush before I base them.

Here are the stages of the repainting - I will update this post accordingly.

Trunks basecoated, pre-shaded and repainted using different inks.

Treetops are just basecoated with a dark Green from below and already look not too bad now.

Basecolours done, followed by 2 highlights.

Trunks and treetops have received their final drybrushs each and are now ready for basing.

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Terrain: A mediterranean house in 28mm

For our 28mm project, which is set in the Levant as part of ‘Operation Exporter’, we naturally also need suitable terrain.

While the trees and palm trees I built for the 15mm games can also be used in 28mm without any problems and I still had a few suitable stone walls in stock, the situation was different for buildings.

Fittingly, I had kept some MDF kits from Micro Art Studio from an old Freebooters Fate project, which fit perfectly into the Middle East setting. This one is called "Cabana Maduro".

As I was under a bit of time pressure to get everything ready by CONflict Rhineland 2025, I'll add the little details that bring a scene to life later: Barrels, sacks, clay jugs etc.

And some more pictures from the WiP stage:

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CONflict Rheinland 2025 - man what a brilliant weekend that was again

Unfortunately, the weekend went by far too quickly and CONflict Rhineland 2025 is already history again - but as usual, it was a great weekend with lots of superbly designed gaming tables and presentations, plenty of old and new mates, loads of chatting and of course a few drinks too.

The organisation team was perfect as usual, the kitchen and the catering organised by Lasse was a highlight in itself; now it's time for a few more days of training to get rid of the pounds 😅

I particularly like the concept:

There are no day guests per se, everything is by invitation. This means you can easily leave your table unattended for a few hours and play elsewhere without having to worry that half of your table will have disappeared when you return.

Max and I set off from Bavaria towards the Rhineland around lunchtime on Friday and got through without any major traffic jams etc., so we were able to set up our table in a relaxed atmosphere, on which we presented ‘What A Soldier’ as a participation game, a self-designed supplement for ‘What A Cowboy’.

An adaptation/extension mainly around automatic weapons and their effects with more to follow (implementing cars and even Armoured Cars soon).

On Saturday we were able to present some WaS games and above all we got to play them ourselves - besides ‘Barons War v2’ we were particularly fond of the Kurpfalz Feldherren table, where the Great Northern War was the theme - once in a variant of ‘Pikeman's Lament’ adapted for Rank&File and as a multiplayer battle with a DBA variant ... Pure fun, even if our Russian-Saxon coalition got a good kicking from the Swedes 😎

Conclusion: A must-attend event for us again next year!

And here are a few pictures of the presentations, which were all at a top level.

"What A Soldier" - our own supplement for "What A Cowboy"

"Trench Warfare"

The following pictures are all for "Call of Cthulhu" game - fantastic model building skills!

"Battlestar Galactica"

"Battlegroup"

The battlefield for the Great Northern War setting

"Starship Troopers"

"Necropolis28"

"Barons War v2"

"Die Lügen des Odysseus" using rules from Bello Ludi

And a few shots from "What A Soldier" games we umpired. Mission for both player was to rescue a shot down pilot who hides in the temple ruins and escort him safely back to the own lines.

Both side are rushing to the object ...

to be the first to rescue the pilot.

While this mysterious man tries to stop his opponent with well-aimed shots.

It gets up close and personal everywhere - at the ruins itself ...

and the flanks.

The Great Northern War games - the first shots of a smaller game using amended "Pikement´s Lament" rules so the work for Rank & File games.

Swedes try to force a crossing over the river and the Russians try to prevent it of course.

And a Multiplayer game with 3 players on each side using amended DBA rules - it was really great fun:

Even with both flanks falling apart, my Saxon centre managed nearly to get through the Swedes.

But their commander had one final trump card left and could change the result of the melee from a severe loss to a pushed back. 😎

And a few pictures from the "Barons War" game using the new v2 version of these rules:

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28mm projects: Arab Legion for the Battle of Habbaniah and Operation Exporter 1941

After a long break in the 28mm scale, I now had the opportunity to paint a few figures for it again.

At the end of last year, Max and I decided to start a joint project for a participation game that we wanted to present at various cons.

For the setting, we decided on an excerpt from ‘Operation Exporter’, more precisely the battle around Palmyra.

For the rules, we decided on ‘What A Cowboy’, which we are still adapting to our chosen setting.

While Max painted the Frenchmen of the French Light Desert Company, I took on the part of the Arab Legion.

And here is the completed squad of the Arab Legion - maybe the foundation for a complete platoon, such as for Chain of Command?

For WaC the figures represent 1 Lieutenant (Gunslinger), 1 Sergeant (Shootist), 2 Corporals (Greenhorn), 2 groups of normal soldiers (Henchmen) and 1 special group of soldiers (also Henchmen) equipped with a Lewis LMG.

The Lewis LMG team initially consists of irregular Arabs from Artizan Miniatures, the rest is from Woodbine from their WW1 range.

The complete squad - a start for more maybe?

The leader of the pack - maybe Glubb Pasha himself?

My squad leader.

One of my Lance-Corporals.

And my 2nd Lance-Corporal - he will lead my 2nd squad (still to do)

Special Soldiers Group - Irregular Arabs acting as my Lewis LMG team for now.

A group of Soldiers.

And another group of Soldiers completes the Rifleteam.

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